Updating processor speed

Usually, 4GB should be enough for the average person—it isn't going to make most apps run faster and it isn't going to improve gaming all that much.If you're still rocking 512MB, it could definitely be worth an upgrade—but otherwise, you can probably pass.

The more RAM your virtual machines have, the faster they'll run (and the less they'll steal from your actual OS).Hard Drives/Solid State Drives: We've talked about this a lot before, but it's worth repeating: Upgrading to a solid state drive (SSD) is one of the best upgrades you can make in terms of general speed boosts.An SSD can speed up your boot time and the launching of applications, though it isn't going to encode video any faster or make your games run more smoothly (though they will load faster).An SSD won't make web sites load any faster, and it isn't really worth it if you only use a few applications.Dear Lifehacker, I only have $X to spend, so I can only make one upgrade to my PC.Should I upgrade my RAM/hard drive/processor/video card or my RAM/hard drive/processor/video card?

Which one will give me the biggest performance boost?Sincerely, Collecting Components Dear Collecting, Every version of this question is different for every person that asks it, so it's difficult to give a definitive answer based on only the parts available.Some upgrades will be better in certain situations, and it all depends on what you already have, too.That said, we can give you the information you need to make the decision pretty easily. If you do a lot of multitasking, or your work involves applications that require a lot of memory (e.g., you run a lot of virtual machines), RAM is going to be a solid upgrade.Here are the two things you'll want to keep in mind. If you play a lot of games, a new video card is more likely to increase performance, while video editors would probably like a faster, multithreaded processor.Here's a breakdown of possible upgrades and what they'd be good for: RAM: While RAM is easily the cheapest upgrade you can make, most modern computers aren't going to see a huge performance benefit from upgrading.